The Lord of the Rings movie series

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is an old
adage that has been the basis for many a story. It is the primary plot
device behind John Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
classic. Written in 1954-55, with origins dating back to 1937, the
first of the three movie installments, which have already been filmed,
tries to stay true to the mystical world present in the book. The
resulting effort is a definite success.

The star of the story, and the film, is not a person, but an
object, a ring. The ring allows one to control a host of other rings
handed down to the different peoples of Middle Earth: three rings
belong to the immortal elves; seven to the dwarfs; and nine rings to
mortal humans. The ring that rules all the others, forged using the
fires of Mount Doom by the evil Wizard Sauron (Sala Baker), gives its
holder so much power that it corrupts all those who seek to wear it,
even the purest.

Of course, there are some peoples that are more pure than
others. Humans generally seem incapable of wearing it without being
corrupted by its influence (no surprise there). But there exists a
diminutive people, the Hobbits, who do seem at least capable of
carrying it without being polluted too much. It falls upon one Hobbit,
Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), to take the ring to Mt. Doom, which is
the only place where it can be destroyed.

Frodo is aided in his quest by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen),
the elf Legolas Greenleaf (Armando Bloom), the dwarf Gimli (John
Rhys-Davies), two humans Strider aka Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and
Boromir (Sean Bean), and three other Hobbits including Frodo's friend
Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin). The story chronicles how Frodo, being a
reluctant hero, travels through mysterious and dangerous lands of
breathtaking beauty, and fights terrific monsters in the context of
awesome towers and citadels, to achieve his goal.

Perhaps one of the most visionary aspects about Tolkien's work is
how he set the stage for a Dungeons and Dragons style video-game.
Director Peter Jackson imbibes to the film the same feel present the
book, in terms of traversing a diverse variety of landscapes, while
encountering a diverse variety of creatures, friend and foe alike.
Watching the film, it's easy to become mesmerised by the fantasy that
is unfolding purely based on the cinematography.

Like with Joanne Rowling's Harry
Potter (or for that matter, Stephen King's It), this film does not live up what I
imagined, but it does a great job of presenting what Jackson and his
co-workers imagined. The special effects are spectacular and
meticulously done, perhaps even better than those observed in Harry Potter. There are no
cop-outs here and every place that it matters, the effort and the
expense have been evidently put in. The soundtrack sometimes
overwhelms the dialogue, of which there is a lot, interspersed between
the action sequences. Do not miss seeing this on the big screen. This
is how movies should be made.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is better than
its predecessor, and that's a rare occurrence when it
comes to Hollywood films.

The story begins where the first film left off:
Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) continues on his quest to Mordor to
destroy the powerful ring in the same fires of Mount Doom from which
it was created. Aiding him, directly and indirectly are, fellow
Hobbits Samwise Gamjee (Sean Astin), Meriadoc Brandybuck (Dominic
Monaghan) and Peregrin Took (Billy Boyd); Gandalf (now) the White (Ian
McKellen); Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen); Legolas Greenleaf the elf
(Orlando Bloom); Gimli the Dwarf (John Rhys-Davies); and Treebeard the
Ent (voice of John Rhys-Davies). Against him are Saruman the White
(Christopher Lee) and Sauron the Dark Lord, whose spirit is
intertwined with the ring. And a creature whose intentions are
ambiguous (quite literally) is Smeagol/Gollum (voiced by Andy Serkis).

The main goal of this episode is to showcase the unleashing of the
Saruman's forces to conquer middle earth. The movie actually ends on a
positive note, with our friends having the upper hand in the two epic
battles--between Saruman's 10,000 strong army and the inhabitants of
the Kingdom of Rohan at their Helm's Deep fortress; and between the
Ents and Sarmuan's war machine in Isengard--as well as several minor
ones.

The cinematography, along with the computer graphics, is
awe-inspiring. Gollum is animated brilliantly, so much that I thought
he was more convincing than any of the real actors. The CGI in general
is state-of-the-art; the only time I could clearly discern the
computer generated images was when they had the battle with the Wargs,
There is a lot of humour in the film, which shows that nothing in life
is worth taking too seriously. The soundtrack, which is reminiscent of
old Westerns, is excellent.

It's hard to fault a film that is as well-made as this one. In my
view, The Two Towers is best judged on its own
merits. While it would help to be familiar with Tolkien's works
(including The Hobbit, which really fills in a great deal
of the background material), this tale can stand on its own if you use
your imagination.

The reason Harry
Potter, Star
Wars, Star
Trek, are such big successes is because of the mythology
they create. The Lord of the Rings, which predates these
works, is no exception and is one of the richest. The film itself can
be described only in superlatives. Go see it.

There's definite value to making a series of films at the same
time: the quality and the "look and feel" is consistent, and the
passion of the people involved, if present in the first film, is
present in all of them. Most important of all (unlike in The Matrix or even the Star Wars series), it shows that the
creators have thought through the implications of their story arc,
rather than just generating sequels due to public pressure. In the
case of The Lord of the Rings, it probably didn't hurt
that the plot was based on a famous well-established book.

And this is how it ends. In The Return of the King,
the filmmakers tell a fairly simple story: how the two Hobbits, Frodo
Baggins (Elijah Wood) and Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) finally return
the powerful ring to the fires of Mount Doom. They take a well-paced
200 minutes to do so and every minute is worth watching.

The best character throughout the whole series of films for me was
Smeagol (voiced Andy Serkis) whose history as he becomes the Gollum is
showcased here, as is the corrupting nature of power. This is how the
movie starts, and as everyone knows, it ends with his death. Perhaps
the best lesson from this film is that Frodo is a potential Gollum,
and Gollum is a potential Frodo.

The graphics were absolutely perfect. The final epic battle is a
visual spectacle. And as has been the trademark in this movie series,
the are interspersed with poignant scenes that are irrelevant to time
and place, when viewed from an anthropomorphic perspective. Further,
the visual scenes themselves a great mix of live action with
computer-generated images which blend together seamlessly. The most
anticlimactic moment had to do with the defeat of Sauron, which in the
end I thought happened a little too easily. I would've liked to see
him go head to head a little more with Frodo's friends.

No set of words in a review can do justice to The Lord of
the Rings movies, save to say that it's best watched on a large
screen with great surround sound so you can see for yourself why.